Steve Troxler, N.C. commissioner of agriculture, kicked off his campaign for re-election early by visiting Wilson Wednesday, hard on the heels of the primary election.
Troxler, who was sworn in Feb. 8, 2005, becoming the first Republican commissioner of agriculture, spoke to about 200 farmers at Bill's Barbecue Restaurant before taking time out from his campaign to visit the Wilson County Agricultural Center and watch a bi-annual collection of pesticides.
After being wished good luck on his campaign, Troxler said there was no luck in it. "It's hard work," he said.
Earlier Troxler, who faces Democrat Ronnie Ansley of Wake Forest in the general election, told N.C. Department of Agriculture and contract workers to be commissioner of agriculture you have to love barbecue. He gets invited to a lot of places but only gets to eat chicken and barbecue, he said and laughed.
Troxler stopped to visit the Agriculture Extension Service because the pesticide collection program is a huge success for the NCDA and the state.
"As a farmer, I have delivered pesticide disposals to the program before," he said. "This program is an absolute necessity in North Carolina."
With the amount of agriculture there is in North Carolina, there is always some partially filled pesticide containers left over during the planting season, Troxler said.
"We want to make sure we do dispose of these pesticides in a proper way and they don't find their way into places in the environment where they don't need to be," he said.
The pesticide collection program, which was started in 1980, is very successful, and Troxler said NCDA is considering expanding it to take unused prescription drugs,.
After seeing news broadcasts of some nursing homes dumping unused prescription drugs into toilets, where they end up in drinking water, Troxler said he thought the NCDA, working with the Drug Enforcement Agency, could help correct the problem.
"We think this would be a really worthwhile addition to this program to help the public dispose of these unwanted drugs," Troxler said.
When Jimmy Miller, a Rock Ridge farmer, drove to the collection site and received help from the contractors as he emptied containers of pesticides from his truck, Troxler greeted him.
"This is really a good program," Miller said. "It is a way of getting rid of chemicals that have been around a long time when you don't know what to do with them."
Derrick Bell of the NCDA's Pesticides Division, said NCDA usually collects about 140,000 pounds of pesticides each year. North Carolina is also the first state in the country to pass the 1 million pound mark, he said.
The pesticides are collected and transported to Texas, where it is incinerated.
"It is a huge cost savings to the state," Bell said. "Otherwise the state would have to clean it up."
eddie@wilsontimes.com | 265-7820